Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"I'm all ears."

Eren said while finishing what remained of the tea in his cup. He fixated his eyes on his slave and gestured her to take a seat nearby where he was.

"Wha… What do you want to know about Beast Bloods?"

Agatha felt nervous after sitting near her new master. Her instincts were now telling her that this person should never be harmed by her hands. Under any means, at all costs. Otherwise, she would have to face grim repercussions.

"For starters, tell me what is the objective of the Beast Bloods? From what I know about you guys, every cultist organization focuses on a certain lost path of magic. All that it has done is doing, and will be doing will be linked to that path.

So it is easier to predict the Beast Bloods' next moves if I know about their motives. Tell me what you know about this first."

Eren said while tapping his fingers on the surface of the desk table nearby. The tapping sound could be distinctly heard by the young slave, which created a subtle pressure on her psyche. She had to admit that her new master could see through a lot of deceptions with enough information at his disposal.

"Beast Blood's main objective is to successfully revive the lost branch of magic that turns humans into demi-humans. Becoming a therianthrope is the first major one needs to take before they can turn into full-fledged demi-humans."

Agatha explained slowly. She watched as the terrorist in front of her, who was lost in a bunch of thoughts, suddenly asked her another question:

"Demi-humans, huh? I've heard some legends. But that's not important right now.

You can partially transform into a mana beast, right? Aren't you a demi-human then? And on that matter, what is the difference between a therianthrope and a demi-human?"

Agatha seemed like she was expecting those questions to hit her sooner than later. She cleared her throat before answering:

"The clear distinction between a therianthrope and a demi-human is how they can increase their numbers.

The therianthropes cannot pass down their beastly traits to their progeny whereas the demi-humans should be capable of doing so in theory. This is the most straightforward definition I've heard from my superiors.

They also say that the real demi-human transformation is not something we therianthropes can hope to achieve. This path's end goal is for a human to completely transform into a beast when they need to and revert to their original whenever they want to."

Agatha finished and looked at another empty teacup set as well as a neat-looking tea kettle placed on the desk table. There were also some snacks present. She was tempted to have those. The prison she was in only took care of her daily necessities.

So Agatha was ready to change her palate after all her time spent in that gloomy prison. But she was waiting on the terrorist to allow her to have those. She wouldn't dare touch them otherwise.

Eren saw that the girl was looking at the snacks kept on the table. But he ignored her silent request and verbally marched on:

"I get that the ranking prowess one could exert while being a demi-human might be more in comparison than what normal humans can do. And that's a good advantage to seek.

But I still don't understand why having the ability to pass down your demi-human traits to your progeny is such a big deal? I mean isn't becoming a therianthrope enough of a success for you guys?

If you want to turn your kids like you, you can always do that when they are born. And then wait for them to start their ranking journey before making them go through the same therianthropy process you did. Simple as that. Why go the extra mile?"

Eren didn't know much about the cultists in his previous timelines.

He had hunted a few for the bounties on their heads. But he didn't trouble himself to know about their goals or power structure.

But the whole thing regarding Reen had made Eren take an interest in the path Beast Bloods was treading on. That's why he started asking about the organization's information.

"Um. I'm not too sure about that. They say that the superficial transformation that the therianthropes are used to doing is not enough to tap into the true power of being a demi-human.

The real demi-humans would have the bloodline of both the human and mana beast present within them. But the therianthropes only store that blood in their body and trigger a superficial transformation. The beast's blood does not get integrated with our blood in our case."

Agatha honestly told Eren what she knew. The young therianthrope knew that her master was able to discern her lies from truth, thanks to the enslavement contract.

"Hm. If the integration of blood is the key in turning humans into demi-humans, then shouldn't that have been achieved by now? Isn't that what happens with the beast contract?

What is stopping you guys from becoming a demi-human?"

"They say it is not easy to get integrated with something that doesn't naturally belong to you. Becoming a demi-human sort of goes against nature. So it's not something that you can achieve on your whims.

About the beast contract spell. Yes, it can be regarded as the same as becoming an Anthropos in more ways than one. But it has a few key differences.

Firstly, we don't need a beast's soul trapped within us for it to function the way it should. The beast contract spell requires you to choose the beast that is compatible with your element and inherent nature before forming a contract.

We don't need to do that. At most, the Anthropos-to-be will only worry about the elemental compatibility. The procedure to turn humans into a therianthrope will harmonize the rest. It will form a symbiotic link between humans and their newly acquired beastly traits while eliminating the beast soul."

Agatha said that and looked away from the desk table. She shouldn't torture herself in false anticipation if this wretched terrorist was not going to offer her the snacks that were just a few inches away from her.

Eren's face painted a clear picture that he was confused about something. He voiced his query without wasting time:

"Isn't therianthropy a better version of the beast contract spell then? Why is the former hidden from the populace and illegal when compared to the latter?"

Agatha couldn't help herself from forming a smile on her face after hearing Eren's question.

"Exactly. We cultists don't seem crazy now, do we?"

=========================

AN: The beast contract spell is explained in chapter 100. Also, Therianthropy is the ability of human beings to partially metamorphose into other animals through shapeshifting.

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